2012 Top Jazz Beyond Jazz recordings

Checking out new recordings is the motivation of much jazz journalism, though at top-10 time having so much new stuff can be a bedevilment, if not a curse.

Here’s a baker’s dozen of my favorites from among the 11-some-hundred sent by record labels, publicists and, increasingly, the artists themselves. They reward multiple listenings, so I keep learning about them.

Maghostut Trio – Live at Last (RogueArt) — In Oct 2003, five months before his death, Malachi Favors Maghostut, the profoundly sure bassist who co-founded the AACM and anchored the Art Ensemble of Chicago, recorded with reeds player/pianist Hanah Jon Taylor and drummer Vincent Davis. In sessions in a Madison, Wisconsin studio and the original Velvet Lounge, the musicians are vivid and unflagging, treating Charlie Parker’s “Au Privave” and Little Walter’s “My Babe” with the same high, rough regard as three collective improvisations, Taylor’s “Electric Elephant Dance” and Favor’s own “Beware of the Wolf.”

Steve Lehman Trio – Dialect Fluorescent(Pi) — Wow, can Lehman play alto sax! His rip-roaring yet silver-surfaced tone, flash-finger facility, far-reaching harmonic ideas and intelligent intensity are met with equal presence by bassist Matt Brewer and drummer Damion Reid. The three transform the unlikely “Pure Imagination” (from the first Willie Wonka movie), as well as Coltrane’s “Moment’s Notice,” Jackie McLean’s “Mr. E.” and Duke Pearson’s racy “Jeannine,” Lehman’s hottest feature. These are of a piece with five of his original themes; they all have multiple levels of interactivity in dynamic, transparent sync.

Jacob Garchik – The Heavens/The Atheist Gospel Trombone Album(Yestereve) — A refreshing appropriation of church-rockin’ motifs for cats of all and no religious denominations. A light filter of sceptical secular cosmopolitanism highlights ironies as well as similarities in everybody’s love of swinging, throaty, amassed sounds. Every sound is by Garchik, overdubbing ‘bone, baritone horn, sousaphone and slide ‘bone. Ingenious, solid.

Frank Wright Quartet – Blues for Albert Ayler (ESP-Disk) — Hot as lava, guitarist James Blood Ulmer and drummer Rashid Ali slam with sax-and-flutist Frank Wright, a childhood friend of Albert Ayler, and bassist Benny Wilson during never-before-released tapes of a 1974 gig at Ali’s Alley in Soho. Nobody told them they couldn’t play like this — no-holds-barred, gritty, loud,”free,” devil-may-care — so they do.

Jon Irabagon’s Outright!– Unhinged (Irabragast Records) — An audacious jazz orchestra with strings, Theremin, berimbau, banjo and found objects besides the usual brass, reeds and rhythm, all connecting one way or another with tenor saxophonist Irabagon. Fine playing, rangy within contexts; quick change-ups lead you-never-know-where, and humor leavens the serious fun.

Hafez Modirzadeh – Post-Chromodal Out(Pi) — Alto and tenor saxist Modirzadeh has developed a unique microtonal practice, based in part on Persian (Iranian) dastgah modal music and inspired to universality by Ornette Coleman. He delves deeply into it with capable Iraqi-American trumpeter Amir ElSaffar, pianist Vijay Iyer (who plays a specially tuned keyboard), bassist Ken Filiano and drummer Royal Hartigan, plus guests on Filipino Kulintang (gongs), Persian santur (hammered dulcimer) and electric guitar. At first exposure the sound is — ?!?! — but grow accustomed to the tuning and it takes you away. . .

Wes Montgomery – Echoes of Indiana Avenue(Resonance) — This is the best record of the year that could have been issued in 1958, rich with swinging, melodic vitality. All previously unissued material that the guitar god Montgomery recorded in his hometown, with support from his brothers and cronies. Such music used to be a neighborhood staple; maybe jazz will become so local and groovy again.

Ron Miles – Quiver (Enja) — If Boulder-based trumpeter Miles were m0re widely heard, he’d be more widely appreciated, as he and we deserve. With guitarist Bill Frisell and drummer Brian Blade, Miles is thoughtful, lyrical and a touch raucous, too. It’s a live performance of originals, a blues, Ellington and Mancini tunes.

REISSUES:

Preservation Hall Jazz Band – The 50th Anniversary Collection — As it was and how it is.

Spectrum Road (Palmetto) — Works of Tony Williams’ Lifetime, not really a reissue but a high-energy revisitation by guitarist Vernon Reid, keyboardist John Medeski, drummer Cindy Blackman and Lifetime’s original bassist Jack Bruce. I’m glad this material gets new life.

BEST VOCAL ALBUM

Neneh Cherry and The Thing – The Cherry Thing (Smalltown Supersound) – Tenor sax terror Mats Gustuffson leads the trio The Thing, Neneh Cherry is one fearless singer, and repertoire includes tunes by the Stooges and Suicide as well as by Don Cherry (Neneh’s stepdad) and Ornette. Brace yourself.

Comments

Great to see Malachi’s “Live at Last” on your list, even if its been out there a while. Malachi went out singin and smokin and Hanah Jon Taylor is a mighty sax warrior and a splendid flutist, still not nearly well know in the States as he should be.

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Howard Mandel

I'm a Chicago-born (and after 30 years in NYC, recently repatriated) writer, editor, author, arts reporter for National Public Radio, consultant and nascent videographer -- a veteran freelance journalist working on newspapers, magazines and websites, appearing on tv and radio, teaching at New York University and elsewhere, consulting on media, publishing and jazz-related issues. I'm president of the Jazz Journalists Association, a non-profit membership organization devoted to using all media to disseminate news and views about all kinds of jazz.
My books are Future Jazz (Oxford U Press, 1999) and Miles Ornette Cecil - Jazz Beyond Jazz (Routledge, 2008). I was general editor of the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz and Blues (Flame Tree 2005/Billboard Books 2006) Read More…

About Jazz Beyond Jazz

What if there's more to jazz than you suppose? What if jazz demolishes suppositions and breaks all bounds? What if jazz - and the jazz beyond, behind, under and around jazz - could enrich your life?
What if jazz is the subtle, insightful, stylish, … [Read More...]

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Howard Mandel c 1998/published by DownBeat, July 1998, under headline Beneath the Underdog (the editor's reference to Charles Mingus's autobiography):
There's an anchor for New York's downtown free jazz and improv "wild bunch": his name is William … [Read More...]

This is a complete version of the feature on pianist Matthew Shipp I wrote for The Wire, published in February, 1998
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Miles Davis
intended On The Corner to be a
personal statement, an esthetic breakthrough and a social provocation upon its
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